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CoL John Augustine Washington, C. S. A. 

of Mount Vernon 

By 

Colonel Arthur Herbert 



THE 

WASfflNGTON Address 



BY 



Col. Arthur Herbert 



1915 

J. P. Bell Co.. Printers 

Lynchburg, Va. 



£37/5 

■ ffSZ 

John Augustine Washington 

of Mount Vernon 

Lt.-Col. and Aide-de-Camp to General Robert Edward Lee, 
C. S. A. Killed, Valley Mountain, Sept. 13, 1861 

No soldier of fortune, no seeker of pelf, 

No lover of glory and fame, 
But simply a man who was true to himself, 

The home where he'd dwelt, and his name. 

He rode far away at the call of the land, 

Unmindful of peril and fate, 
A smile on his face and a wave of his hand, 

For children who stood at the gate. 

He rode by the side of the kingliest knight, 

And deemed it a guerdon to share 
His tent and the march and the danger and fight. 

To kneel by his chieftain in prayer. 

He lay where he fell, with the light on his face. 

Untouched by dishonor and shame, 
Defeated, yet true to the pride of his race. 

The home where he'd dwelt, and his name. 

The tears were like dew in the eyes of the chief. 
Who gazed on the form of his friend. 

And thought of the children at home and their grief. 
The blossom of life and its end. 

He sent, all entwined with his pity and love, 
The flowers that grew where he fell, 

And angels, who walked on the ramparts above, 
Eepeated their call, "It is well." 

'Tis well, if for years he has slept 'neath the sod. 

Uncrowned by the laurels of fame, 
And simply a man who was true to his God, 

The home where he'd dwelt, and his name. 






Address on the Presentation of 

Colonel Washington's Portrait 
To Lee Gamp 



Mr. Commandant, Ladies and Gentlemen, and My 
Old Comrades of the days that tried mens souls: 

I am glad to be with you once more on so interest- 
ing an occasion as the reception from Col. Walter 
Taylor, in behalf of Lee Camp and the Washington 
family, of the portrait of Col. John Augustine 
Washington of Mt. Vernon — a sketch of whose short 
military career that promised so much for its future, 
and his tragic death has been so interestingly told 
and graphically given by Colonel Taylor to-night — 
and for which in behalf of Lee Camp and the Wash- 
ington family we heartily thank him. 

Let us go back some years into the past and state 
that the first of the Washington family, John and 
Lawrence, emigrated to Virginia in the year 1657 
from England, bringing with them all the intelli- 
gence, hardihood and manhood of an English an- 
cestry. It was a great day for the country at large, 
and Virginia in particular, when these men landed 
on our shores. Educated in heart and in mind as 
well, they became at once factors in the development 
of their adopted country. 

From one of these, John Washington, sprang 
Gen. George Washington, the central figure in Co- 



lonial days and the master leader and military mind 
of the American Revolution. Upon him eulogy has 
exhausted itself, and iconoclasts have tried to bring 
him down from the heights upon which his country- 
men had placed him, but without avail. The 
grandeur of this man has stood the test of time. His 
self-abnegation, his pure and lofty ideals of duty, 
and his love of country before all else, except his 
God, have been reproduced once only in this country, 
in the character of Gen. Robert E. Lee, the second 
great Rebel Virginia has given to this country and 
the world at large — in both of whom dwelt every 
manly virtue and God-like attribute. 

Col. John A. Washington was bom at Blakely, 
Jefferson County, Virginia, May 3d, 1821, and was 
a great-great-nephew of General Washington of Mt. 
Vernon. A more beautiful country than that of 
his birth my eyes have rarely ever rested upon, a 
country of brave men and fair women, an environ- 
ment that no doubt had its effect upon him as sho^vn 
in his after-life. 

Looking down the dim vista of fifty-six years 
when I first became a guest of the Washington fam- 
ily, I will try and recall from memory and give some 
idea of the life at Mt. Vernon and of the personality 
of its owner. I was first introduced to Mr. Washing- 
ton by my brother, an old schoolmate and cotempo- 
rary of his, and nothing could have been more graci- 
ous than his reception of me. If memory sei^ves me 
right, he was nearly six feet in height, his figiTre 
well knit, well proportioned and graceful in move- 
ment. His head, well poised upon his shoulders, 
was covered with wavy chestnut hair. His face was 



all aglow with good humor and intelligence. Large 
browTi eyes that sparkled with mirth looked the world 
squarely in the face, and seemed to take in only the 
bright side of life — and thus you have him as I first 
saw him. As our acquaintance deepened into friend- 
ship and I got to know him better, I was charmed to 
know how well read he was, and with what ease and 
fluency he talked of Avhat was best in all the old 
standard authors, and upon the current topics of the 
day. You had but to ask for information and he 
gave it clearly and intelligently. He would have 
adorned any position or shone in any walk of life 
where his wellnstored memory and culture could have 
been brought into play. 

He seems to have been without ambition as to a 
political life, or of worldly advancement, for which 
his talents so eminently fitted him. Yet he had all 
the prestige that an illustrious family name could 
give in the pursuit of either. But his classic and 
beautiful home on the Potomac, and the charm in 
the life of a Virginia planter (which when I first 
knew him was the ideal one) outweighed all else in 
his well-balanced mind. 

In Mrs. Washington he had a charming help- 
mate and companion, who loved her home and kept 
a well-ordered establishment where hospitality and 
true courtesy abounded. 

Apart from that intangible, subtle spell and in- 
fluence that all old houses of the good and the great 
throw around you, ]\It. Vernon had another charm 
peculiarly its own, which was the perfect union in 
feeling and sentiment of the master and mistress of 
the house, which seemed to pervade children and 



servants alike, that made the giiests of Mt. Vernon 
glad of the repose and peace found within its portals, 
and there were many guests, distinguished and other- 
wise, that sought its shelter. 

At breakfast, the first family reunion of the day, 
the charming and heart-felt salutations of parents 
and children, the deferential courtesy to each other, 
and their easy and unconstrained courtesy to guests, 
spoke well for the pleasure of the coming day. Con- 
versation led by the master of the house flowed in 
easy channels, without personalities or pedantry, 
touching on topics that brought out only the best in 
the character of each guest. 

Strongly attached to his beautiful old home, filled 
as it was with the memories of three generations of 
Washingtons, Colonel Washington for many reasons 
— among them and perhaps the most weighty of all 
was the constant influx of visitors from all parts of 
the country, and the impossibility to any longer en- 
joy the privacy of his home — consented at last to sell 
it to the Ladies' Mt. Vernon Association. With a 
far-sighted business sagacity he invested a part of the 
money received from the sale of Mt. Vernon in 
Chicago real estate, which but for the war between 
the States would have been of great value to his heirs. 

After leaving Mt. Vernon he moved to his estate 
in Fauquier, called Waveland, after which, to my 
great regret, I saw very little of him. 

That Gen. Robert E. Lee, who was a judge of men 
and character beyond any man of his day, should 
have selected Colonel Washington to be one of his 
military family, showed the high estimation in which 
Colonel Washington was held by him. And surely 



no greater compliment conld have been paid him as a 
man of ability and as a gentleman than that by Gen- 
eral Lee. 

When the war came on, our ways parted, never to 
reunite in this life — he to a position as aid to General 
Lee in West Virginia and I to a lieutenancy in the 
17th Virginia Infantry. His death was a great 
shock to me, my association with him being closer 
than usually falls to men with such a difference in 
years. Some years prior to the war he became 
deeply interested in spiritual things ; he became a 
vestryman in his parish church, held family prayers, 
and in this new life exemplified by his walk and con- 
versation the teachings of our Divine Master and 
was prepared to go when He called him hence. 

His call was a sudden one, but in it the love and 
mercy of God was shown, in that he was spared the 
humiliation of the reconstruction era, which crushed 
the hopes of so many of the survivors of our struggle, 
when God's face seemed to be hidden from us and 
hope found a grave in the hearts of so many of our 
survivors. Such, old comrades, ladies and gentle- 
men, is an imperfect sketch of Col. John A. Wash- 
ing-ton, whose portrait we come to-night to place 
among Virginia immortals — her best and bravest in 
her heroic age from 1861 to '65. 

From the portraits of these men who look down 
upon us to-night, though varied in feature, they were 
one in heart and soul in their love and fealty for Old 
Virginia. For her they lived and fought and died, 
being as they were true followers and descendants of 
the pioneers, jurists, statesmen and soldiers that in 
bronze and marble adorn your public buildings and 



parks to-day. When time shall efface these features 
that now call forth our love and admiration, and 
those effigies in bronze and marble crumble into dust, 
the lives and virtues of these men shall shine on for- 
ever and ever as stars to light the ages yet to come. 




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